


there goes my hero (watch him as he falls)

by AmyDancepantsPeralta



Series: without you, I'm nothing (one shot tumblr prompts) [3]
Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Jake x Amy - Freeform, Love Confessions, One-Shot, Peraltiago, Peraltiago fluff, Pining, Tumblr Prompt, the start of something new
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-28
Updated: 2019-06-28
Packaged: 2020-05-28 09:38:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19391446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmyDancepantsPeralta/pseuds/AmyDancepantsPeralta
Summary: “Just tell me why you did it, Jake!”“Because I LOVE YOU, okay?  Are you happy now?I love you.  I am so in love with you it’s ridiculous.”(my response to a tumblr post on cliche prompts, because everyone loves a good cliche!)





	there goes my hero (watch him as he falls)

**there goes my hero (watch him as he falls)**

There had always been a tiny part of Amy’s mind that was a little concerned that _maybe_ she wasn’t the badass she made herself out to be.

Sure, she knew how to fight. But that was because she grew up watching (and learning) as her siblings sparred. She was tenacious, because with her and her Mom as the only two women in the house, she had learned quickly the importance of standing your ground. And she certainly knew how to use her mind, but the mind wasn’t everything. Logically, she knew that she was tough - and always held onto the belief that when push came to shove, her natural born instinct would be to fight like hell.

That was until this afternoon, when she and Jake had followed up on what turned out to be bad intel from her CI, resulting in them chasing their perp into a nearby stockyard. With his head start, neither of them had managed to catch which direction he’d been heading in and so they’d split up, Jake heading west while she stayed east (or, as Jake had put it, you go _this way_ and I’ll go _that way_ ). 

Maybe it was the lack of sleep she’d experienced the night before. Or maybe it was sheer stupidity. But for whatever reason, she didn’t notice the perp gaining on her until it was too late, and he was standing in front of her with the barrel of his gun pointing straight at her chest.

And she froze. Despite all the training, and god knows how many simulations she’d been in. She _froze_. 

The rest of it played over and over in her head, a continuous loop she cannot seem to escape. She remembers her body tensing up as she heard the perp cock his weapon, remembers her eyes squinting as her face turned into a grimace, and then suddenly: Jake was there. He was there, and his hand was on her shoulder pushing her away, his body in-between hers and the perps, and then the shot rang out. 

Round and round. The shot rang out, and Jake was there, and then suddenly he _wasn’t_. 

He was on the ground, and a scarily large pool of red was surrounding him, and the perp was getting away but she didn’t care. Instead she was shouting words into the radio, free hand frantically pushing her jacket off her body to cover the wound ( _a through and through_ , she remembers thinking), and before long there were paramedics and officers and Terry’s familiar voice and her hands just _would not stop shaking_.

This wasn’t her first time witnessing a shooting. And as part of her job, she knew it would not be her last, either. But this one had been different. She’d never had her partner in front of her, mouthing her name as his face grew pale and her once grey jacket pushed against his shoulder, turning crimson at an alarmingly rapid rate. Never had the knowledge that it should have been her on the ground, because she was the one that froze, and now Jake was on the ground bleeding and it was _all her fault_. 

There has just been so much blood. It was what she kept coming back to, what she found herself repeating to Terry over and over in the car on the way to the hospital - _There was so much blood, Sarge, don’t you think there was so much blood? Too much blood to be okay. I’ve never seen that much blood. Terry? Was it too much blood?_ He’d remained silent beside her, eyes trained on the road ahead, clenching jaw the only indicator that he’d heard her at all. 

And then Amy was silent too, mind lost in the memory of the previous week. Her consuming one too many drinks at Shaws, followed by Jake taking her home in a cab. She had been so eager to stop the world from spinning, resting her head on his shoulder, but that only seemed to make it spin faster. Before long his nose was in her hair, and okay, _maybe_ she was completely drunk but she could have _sworn_ she heard him say her name. She’d lifted her head to answer him, but his eyes were closed, and there was so little distance between them that Amy could feel his breath against her skin. The urge to push forward - to close the gap and find out if his lips were as soft as they looked - was strong, but then he’d opened his eyes and she’d felt her face rush with blood, the blush so obvious from being so clearly caught out.

He’d smiled at her, that small smile that he’s only given her a handful of times, the one that was secretly her favourite, and her heart had skipped a tiny beat. And then the cab had pulled over outside her apartment, and just like that, the moment was gone.

It had been close to a year working together when the conversation of dating colleagues had come up. Jake had been filling the silence of a stakeout with his usual jabber and had just finished describing, in elaborate detail, the disaster that his previous relationship had left behind. That she had been a cop from another precinct, and that things were great until they _weren’t_ , and that before Jake knew it he’d unknowingly embroiled the Nine-Nine in an all-out war with the Eight-Six. 

It had taken months for their Sergeant to smooth things over, he’d admitted sheepishly, and Amy couldn’t help but take the opportunity to announce that she never wanted to date another cop. _Nothing but bad ideas_ , she remembered saying, and if she had only glanced back in Jake’s direction, then she too would have seen the flicker of anguish that had crossed his face.

But she hadn’t, and even as they grew closer, Amy had held onto the rule like her talisman - fooling even herself into believing that they _didn’t_ flirt with each other, that they _weren’t_ growing closer every day, and that there _definitely_ weren’t nights where Jake infiltrated her dreams.

An hour passes by. And her mind never stops thinking about what happened.

She finds herself standing outside his hospital room, filled with irrational anger, willing herself to calm the hurricane down before stepping through the door. At some point Terry exits and takes one look at her appearance - hair long pulled from its professional ponytail; bottom lip red from her incessant chewing, arm a constellation of crescent scars as her nails continue to dig in - and wisely steps aside, mumbling something about Jake getting changed into a clean shirt, and still Amy finds herself unable to step into the room.

Letting out an exasperated sigh, she shakes her hands free and pushes the door open with a little more force than was probably necessary. It bounces off the wall with a heavy bang, not unlike the sound of the gun earlier that evening, and she jumps at the sound. She turns, sheepishly looking for him, and he’s sitting at the edge of the bed in a standard issue NYPD shirt, one arm wrapped in a sling, eyes wide and strangely silent. 

He’s been waiting for her. She can tell from the look on his face. But the sudden confrontation of her partner in front of her, one shoulder covered in gauze and nursed against his chest is unfamiliar to her, and everything she had been about to say suddenly seems irrelevant. 

He clears his throat, sensing her discomfort because of course he does, _he’s her partner_ , and he knows her body language better than she does. “So, they said I have to keep my arm in a sling for the next couple of days, but that otherwise I’m fine.”

She nods, fingers digging into her arms again.

“Through and through. Only a few stitches, really. That good ol’ Peralta Luck came through for me again.”

Another nod. He sighs.

“I’m fine, Amy."

She takes a deep breath and shakes her head. “But it could’ve been worse.”

“It could’ve, yeah. But it wasn’t.”

“You weren’t there,” she whispered, trying desperately to fight the tears threatening to escape. “You were on the other side of the yard, away from the danger. And then, you - ”

“I heard his footsteps. Dude was a heavy walker. There was nothing happening on my side, but on your side, I could hear his. Yours, I would know anywhere. And when they _both_ stopped, I knew something must have been going down. The rest, I guess, is history.”

“You should have stayed _away_ , Jake.” There is was, that irrational anger that Amy had thought she’d managed to stash away, rearing its ugly head. “You should have stayed back, and called for backup, and not put yourself into harm’s way.”

Jake shakes his head, his disagreement so obvious that it serves only to fuel her fire.

“You know I’m right on this, Peralta! We weren’t even wearing vests. It made absolutely NO sense for both of us to end up in front of that gun. You could’ve distracted him, tried to take him down, or - ”

“Don’t you dare suggest that I should have stood there and watched him shoot you, Santiago. There’s not a chance in hell that I was ever going to let that happen.”

“Alright, fine. But _still_ ….” 

He stands, craning his neck as he clenches his jaw, mouth turning into a grimace as he fights to say what he so obviously is dying to say. 

And so she pushes. “Just tell me why you did it, Jake!”

“Because I LOVE YOU, okay? Are you happy now? _I love you_. I am so in love with you it’s ridiculous.”

She stares at him, mouth opening slightly as his outburst continues. 

“And I know you don’t want to date cops, and I know that we’re better off just being partners, and I’m trying the best I can to _not_ be in love with you. But I can’t do that when there is a bullet flying towards you, Amy. I can’t. I won’t. There’s no point to any of this without you here.”

“ . . . Jake.”

He shakes his head, taking a step back. “Don’t. It doesn’t matter, Ames. I’ve been getting pretty good at the whole ‘Jake Doesn’t Love Amy’ act, and after tonight I’ll fall right back into the role, I promise.”

“But, I -”

“Seriously, Amy. You’re off the hook. This whole thing is just as much my fault as it is yours, and honestly, I’ve been holding out for a super cool scar for ages, so who’s to say that I wasn’t just thinking about that when I did it?”

The memory of his warm breath on her skin in the backseat of a cab washes over her again, and Amy knows that this time she can’t let the moment slip away.

That maybe she _was_ a badass, but that her bravery sometimes took on other forms. A stranger pointing a gun at her could make her freeze, but the mere thought of walking out of this hospital room without finally being honest about her feelings could propel her into immediate action.

That this was Peralta, and yes, he drove her crazy sometimes, but also: this was _Jake_ , the man that filled her with the intrinsic knowledge that he would never do anything to hurt her. That after today, he was going to have a scar on his shoulder, and that was entirely her fault. And she would be _damned_ if she was going to be the reason there was a scar on his heart as well.

And so she steps forward, bold steps turning timid as the distance falls shorter, heart pounding out of her chest as she moves to place her hands on either side of his neck. 

“ … Don’t.” His body stiffens.

She pulls back slightly, eyes raking over his face to distract herself from the sting, searching for more information. He shakes his head, sad brown eyes meeting hers.

“Don’t do this because I’ve made you feel bad about today. I don’t want you to kiss me because you feel obligated.” Another shake of his head, looking away as he closes his eyes. “This is why I didn’t want to tell you. I only want you to kiss me if..” he never finishes the sentence, because suddenly her mouth is on his, and in an instant everything else just seems to fall away. 

She was kissing him, and it shouldn’t make _any_ sense, but it absolutely did. He was the perfect fit, lips slotting against hers, warm and soft and fundamentally _Jake_. His body freezes, but only for a moment, and then she feels him melt into it, releasing a soft sigh into her mouth as she presses harder.

This was it – this was the feeling that she had been waiting for. That sense of fulfilment, of everything clicking together for the first time in a long time. And right now, Amy can’t think of any logical reason why she had held back for so long. He could have died today. _Jake could have died_ , and she would never have felt what it was like to kiss him. And honestly, that would have been a terrible waste.

Slowly – reluctantly - she pulls away, smiling as his lips chase hers as she moves.

“I …” she swallows, throat suddenly dry. “I don’t know if I’m ready to say the L-word just yet,” she whispers, forehead resting against his as she struggles to swallow again, her heart suddenly taking up residence under her tongue. “But I’m also not ready to go back to pretending.”

“Pretending?”

“Yeah. Pretending that this thing isn’t real. That I don’t think about kissing you every time I see you. You know, that kinda stuff.”

He raises his chin slightly, brushing his lips against hers in the most tantalising manner. “I might be familiar.”

It’s Amy’s turn to sigh against his mouth this time, pushing herself closer to him, reveling in the new sensation of Jake’s lips against hers, and in the back of her mind she wonders why they waited _so long_ to do this. Something that feels as good as this did, should never have been denied.

His right hand traces light patterns against her shirt, sending tiny shockwaves along her spine, and as the kiss deepens he raises his left arm to pull her closer, the resulting groan of pain vibrating against her lips. She pulls away with a sigh, eyes flitting straight to his shoulder before returning to his face. 

“You’re going to need someone to keep an eye on you, Jake. Make sure you don’t …”

“Do anything stupid?” She shrugs, and he reciprocates with a grin. “You’re not wrong. Although, if you want me to come home with you, you could’ve just asked.”

She pulls him in for another kiss, letting her teeth sink into his bottom lip this time in reprimand as she pulls away. His responding moan does _things_ to her, and the years of repressed feelings begin to fight their way to the surface. Her head falls to his good shoulder, sighing as his arm circles around her, and although they were still standing in the middle of a hospital room, Amy already feels as if she is home. 

Her actual home however, with all its comforts, beckons, and reluctantly she pulls away, trailing her hand down his right arm until her fingers are linked with his. 

“Come on, let’s get out of here.”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

A blush washes over her, and she resists the urge to tuck her hair away, choosing instead to keep her hand interlocked with his. Together they move towards the door, for the moment silent as the reality of what they have just started begins to sink in.

And then - 

“So, just out of curiosity ... would this be a bad time to mention that I’ve got a real thing for nurses in uniform?” 

She smirks, leaving a mental tick to the checklist already forming in her head. “Duly noted, Detective.”

**Author's Note:**

> Oh how I miss the beginning of their relationship! The pining! The tension! GAH it's so good. I hope I put some of that into this fic ... along with a healthy smattering of Peraltiago Fluff because really, we all need it.
> 
> Title courtesy of Foo Fighters (and I know the lyric is technically wrong, but FALLS worked better than GOES so I'm just going to flex my poetic license on this one!)
> 
> Thank you sooo, sooo very much to all of you that have read my stories, and I will forever be grateful for every one of your comments and kudos. They feed my soul, and I'm not ashamed to admit it.
> 
> Comments/Kudos are always welcome. Come find me on tumblr, I'm @amydancepants-peralta.


End file.
